


winterfox - explosions and aftermath

by raunaballecter



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-30
Updated: 2014-08-30
Packaged: 2018-02-15 08:40:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2222646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raunaballecter/pseuds/raunaballecter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mina has done this job hundreds of times before, so in theory this time should be no different.  And it would have been, if it hadn't been for the bomb.</p>
            </blockquote>





	winterfox - explosions and aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> So this was just an idea I had floating around in my head. General info for those who don't know my characters, Mina Clarke is a mutant who can shapeshift into various animal forms. Also, this takes place after whenever it is that Steve and Co. find Bucky, whenever that will be in the movies, so I'm taking some liberties there obviously.

The job was supposed to be simple.  Sneak into the office building, find the room with the hard drive, make a copy, sneak out.  It was the bread and butter of what Mina had been trained to do under MI5.  She knew how to blend in, to not be noticed in a crowd of business people.  She knew how to quickly and quietly silence people who caught on to her.  She could find and copy hard drives.  So going into this mission, she had been confident and unconcerned.  MI5 had never had any reason to take issue with her work, therefore doing it for SHIELD (were they still calling themselves SHIELD?) would be no problem.

 

And to this point, it was going to plan.  Mina had successfully infiltrated the building, entered a basement with walls so reinforced it might as well be a bunker, and was standing outside a room, picking the lock.  After hearing the click of the door unlocking, Mina spoke into her comm.  “Door open, still haven’t been spotted, going in now.”

 

Steve Roger’s voice crackled over her comm in response. “Any problems so far?”

 

“None.”  Mina opened the door slowly, carefully, being gentle so as to not trigger any booby traps that may be on the door.  HYDRA was once arrogant enough to believe no one would find their secrets, but after the past few months of the team Mina was on taking down HYDRA base after HYDRA base, they had every right to be paranoid.  There was no resistance on the door, however, so Mina opened it fully.

 

“I’m in,” Mina intoned quietly as she walked into the room and closed the door behind her.  The space was full of banks of computers and monitors.  The mechanical whirring of computer fans was very loud to her enhanced hearing, but there was something else, a ticking.  Ticking was never good.  Mina’s eyes scanned the room until she spotted something out of place – what looked like a digital clock.  She moved closer to it to confirm her suspicions – it was a bomb.  She inhaled sharply.  

 

Three minutes.

 

“What is it?” This time Natasha’s voice came across Mina’s comm.

 

Mina did some speedy thinking.  There was no way she would make it out of the building in three minutes.  The bunker-like quality of the basement would prevent anyone in the upper floors from being seriously injured by the blast.  She had studied the blueprints enough to know that the building’s structural integrity would not be compromised by an explosion in the basement.  “Nothing,” she muttered in response.  She knew Nat would be suspicious, but she didn’t care.  She had come here on a mission and she was going to complete it.

 

Plugging a USB key into the nearest computer, she let the program execute to get her into HYDRA’s systems.  She glanced back at the bomb as the soft chime sounded letting her know she was in. Two minutes, thirty seconds.  As fast as she could, she copied the folders she needed over to the USB. One minute, thirty seconds until completion, two minutes until the bomb went off.  While the files copied, she took a closer look at the bomb.  The timer was hooked up to some wires that went back along the wall.  Looking around the room, she spotted a motion sensor in a corner, its lens pointed at the door.  So that’s what triggered the bomb, Mina thought to herself.  Forty seconds until copy completion, one minute, ten seconds until the explosion.  Mina mentally went over her planned escape route, tweaking it to put as many walls between her and the bomb as possible.  Thirty seconds until copy completion, one minute until the explosion.  She was struck with the thought that maybe the bomb was too powerful, that she wouldn’t make it out of the building alive.  All the transformative power she possessed would not get her out of an explosion.  Besides, she needed to bring the USB with her and she needed to be human to hold that.  She thought back to her MI5 co-worker, Ros Meyers.  She had died in a building explosion protecting some politician, Mina couldn’t remember who.  She wondered if Ros had died quickly, if she had been regretful of her career path at that moment.  Mina honestly couldn’t decide if she personally was or not.  Ten seconds until copy completion.  Mina bounced on the balls of her feet in front of the computer. Eight seconds.

 

“There’s a bomb,” Mina barked into her comm.

 

“What?” Bucky’s voice this time.

 

“It’s going off in about thirty seconds.  I have the data. Find me.”  Mina didn’t listen for a response, but she could hear shouting and curses over her comm as she grabbed the USB out of the computer and ran for the door.

 

She sprinted down the hall, mentally counting down as she dodged who she could only assume to be HYDRA employees, ignoring their indignant shouts as they were pushed out of the way.

 

Twenty seconds.

 

Mina wished she could transform into anything, anything at all, that would get her out of here faster, but she needed to deliver the data.  It was important.  It would help them destroy HYDRA.  HYDRA  _needed_  to be destroyed.

 

Ten seconds.

 

She wasn’t as far away as she’d hoped she would be by now.  Still not enough distance between her and the bomb.  Her breath began to hitch as she attempted to increase her speed.

 

Five seconds.

 

She could hear Bucky’s voice shouting over her comm.  She didn’t know what he was saying, but she was glad she could hear him out of all people.

 

One second.

 

The force of the explosion rocked the building, sending her careening into the wall. Heat followed.  An intense, unbearable heat.  She couldn’t breathe. The room was falling around her.  Mina curled as best she could into a ball, clutching her precious USB to her chest.  A slab of wall fell on her, trapping her there. She screamed at the pain of it.  She couldn’t move; everything hurt.  As she faded into unconsciousness, she could finally make out what Bucky was saying over her miraculously still-functioning comm.  He was calling her name.  She smiled.

 

* * *

 

 

When Mina woke up, she felt like she was floating.  She opened her eyes to see a room swimming before them.  She moaned.  The amount of pain meds she must be on to make the world act like this and she still felt sore? Ouch.  There was a warm pressure on her hand.  She searched down her body until she found her hand, noticed a different hand holding it, then followed the arm attached to it up to a shoulder and then along that to a blurry face. Bucky. That was interesting, she thought.  He looked concerned, but also annoyed.

 

“Hey,” she mumbled.

 

“Hey,” he responded, a scion of wordiness if there ever was one.

 

“So I’m not dead?”

 

“Nope.”

 

“Well that’s a bonus.” MIna closed her eyes.  That was about as much effort as she was prepared to put into a conversation that yielded one word answers, so she was going to go back to sleep, where it didn’t hurt.

 

She felt herself starting to drift off when Bucky’s voice interrupted her.

 

“Why did you do that?”

 

Mina blinked her eyes back open.  “Do what?”

 

“Why didn’t you leave as soon as you knew there was a bomb there?” Bucky’s hand tightened on hers.

 

“I had to get the data,” she responded, incredulous.  It was so obvious to her that she didn’t know why he was asking.

 

“Getting the data was more important than escaping a bomb?” She could make out his face clearly enough to tell that he was angry.

 

Mina tried to arrange her face into the most convincing expression she could come up with.  “We need the data to destroy HYDRA.”

 

“So this was worth it to you? Almost getting killed in an explosion? That was worth it for a bit of data?”

 

Mina noticed Bucky’s hand wasn’t on hers anymore.  When had that happened, she wondered.  “Did you get the data from me?” Mina queried.

 

“Yes.”

 

“Was it useful?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Mina sighed.  “Then it was worth it.”

 

“Why is destroying HYRDA so important to you that you would potentially die to do it? Why?”  Bucky was shouting now.

“Because of what they did to you,” Mina answered simply, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.  If she hadn’t been high as a kite, she never would have admitted that to Bucky.  She had never admitted to anyone why her hatred of the evil organisation was so strong, but most people close to her could make a pretty educated guess.  She had a lot of pent up rage, built up from her own time as a prisoner and the death of her lover, and with no one personally involved to take it out on, she directed it at HYDRA.  And while others had guessed it, Bucky, apparently, had not.

 

“Because of what they did to me,” Bucky repeated.

 

He was staring into Mina’s eyes, his expression unreadable to her. He sat back down (when had he stood up, Mina contemplated) and reached over to gently stroke a strand of Mina’s hair out of her face.  “Yes,” Mina confirmed for him.

 

Bucky was suddenly, at least suddenly to Mina’s currently sluggish brain, leaning over her.  He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead and murmured, in Russian, “You’re stupid.”

 

“Iknow,” Mina mumbled back, also in Russian.  She yawned, her eyes drooping shut of their own accord.

 

“Go to sleep,  _myshka_.”

 

All Mina could say in response was a sleepy  moan before she took Bucky’s advice and fell asleep with his hand stroking her hair.

 


End file.
